Laura Olson

Laura covers D.C. politics and policy for The Morning Call. She joined the paper after writing about state government in California and covering the Pennsylvania statehouse for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Capitolwire.com.

In Congress, former Pennsylvania Congressman Lou Barletta was supportive of President Donald Trump’s blunt approach to trade. Now, the Hazleton Republican is calling for more “scalpel-like” tactics as he advocates on behalf of a coalition of Italian companies that could be subjected to a new round of tariffs.

For nearly forty minutes Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey and two of his colleagues talked with President Donald Trump about hammering out a bill to expand gun background checks. Trump remains non-committal on any of the proposals.